The Good Listener Recap: Boardwalk Empire

In the second episode of Season 5 of Boardwalk Empire (The Good Listener – 9/14/2014), we caught up with some more of the series’ main characters: Eli Thompson, Nelson Van Alden and Al Capone in Chicago; Johnny Torrio in New York City; and Gillian is in the booby hatch in New Jersey.

Why must it always be pandemonium?
Our hopes that Van Alden and Eli Thompson would be big-time enforcers in the Capone organization were just as dashed as the ones that Steven Graham’s portrayal of the “Big Fella” would by now bear more of a resemblance to a powerful gangster than a demented buffoon. Van Alden and Eli are the Mutt and Jeff of the Chicago outfit who end up owing Capone $20 grand because Eli was sleeping off a bender and got raided. He managed to get out of there but now they have to pay that money back. They decide to “rob Peter to pay Paul” and steal the money from Greasy Jake Guzik, killing two Capone thugs, Jack and Joey, in the process.

Van Alden has come up in the world at least in terms of living accommodations but his relationship with Sigrid has deteriorated to the point where he finds it easier to despise her rather than love her. For her part, Sigrid needs a smoke to get through her day (does she still make that bootleg whiskey?). Eli has missed his wife June and their 8 children so much over the last 7 years that he is just a broken alcoholic. The only thing these two bumbling fools have in common is that they are in their current messes because they both killed FBI agents.

The character of Elliot Ness is introduced in Chicago as the man who will take down organized crime and the FBI is getting the goods on Capone’s income from an undercover agent named Mike D’Angelo.

Year in, year out, different dogs, same bone.
Nucky meets with Johnny Torrio who still believes Capone was behind the attack on him. He reminds Nucky that most of the men in their line of work get their resignation directly from the Grim Reaper and he’d be wise to retire, too. Torrio offers to broker a meeting with Salvatore Maranzano so he can get to the bottom of the attack on him in Cuba.

Senator Lloyd has arranged a meeting for Nucky with some big money men but fails to show up himself. The men seem quite amused that someone like Nucky would think they would back him up, even though he has secured the exclusive rights to Bacardi rum when Volstead is repealed. One thing comes out of it, he meets Joe Kennedy (the father of the future 35th president), who has secured the rights to Dewars and Moet Champagne “across the pond”. Kennedy promises to look him up when he visits Atlantic City.

At the meeting with Maranzano, Lucky claims that he and Meyer Lansky haven’t seen each other for months and the thing he and Maranzano have going on is “Sicilians only.” Maranzano says Nucky has nothing to fear from him. “Who says I was afraid”, Nucky quips, but he has not failed to notice Tonino Sandrelli, now in the Maranzano camp.

A real schnorrer
But Lansky and Luciano are in cahoots planning the same fate for Maranzano as Masseria just got, but first they need some more support. Tonino was promised he could take over Prince St. for his part in that assassination, and the “schnorrer” has the temerity to ask about it. Nucky arranges to meet with Tonino, who is all too willing to fill him in on the alliance between Lansky, Luciano and Siegel. Tonino jumps at an offer to work for Nucky, fearing that Lansky et al will kill him. Nucky saves them the trouble by having his bodyguard do Tonino in. His dead body, minus one ear, is deposited on the brothel doorsteps with a knife in his back and a Cuban postcard attached.

Making Dr. Cotton happy
We haven’t met Dr. Cotton yet, but we learned the importance of keeping him (her?) happy, when we see Gillian Darmody in a huge room filled with women strapped down in tubs. Gillian’s tub neighbor natters on about her graceful Saratoga season and unfaithful husband. A program called “The Good Listener” comes on the radio. The agony aunt, Nadine St. Clair, relates a tale of unwanted pregnancy from Morristown when a nurse suddenly turns the radio off. The Saratoga lady gets quite agitated and bursts stark naked out of her tub demanding to listen. Other ladies follow suit and a bunch of naked loonies are flopping around while the nurses try to regain control. Only Gillian stays in her tub. The woman in charge enters and gets the situation under control, not failing to notice that Gillian has been “a good girl.” We are led to believe that there is a lesbian relationship about to occur between the two of them, but at least in this episode, it turns out all the woman really wants is a fancy dress Gillian owns and Gillian wants some stationery and a pen. How bizarre. Who would have stopped the “what I say goes” woman if she had just taken Gillian’s dress?

Supporting Cast of “A Good Listener”

Res ipsa loquitur
We catch up with Eli’s son Willie Thompson outside of the office of U.S. District Attorney Robert T. Hodge with a group of applicants looking to get a job as an assistant U.S. attorney. A black girl tells him in Latin “the thing speaks for itself” (as we idly wonder if this might be Chalky’s younger daughter, Addie). Willie is presented with a question of bending ethics during his interview and claims he won’t bend the law. When Hodge realizes Willie is Nucky Thompson’s nephew, he gets short shrift but Willie makes one last eloquent pitch based on how much damage he has seen crime do in his young life. Uh, yeah, his father is still wanted for the murder of Agent Jim Tolliver. Later, Will breaks bread with his Uncle Nucky and lies when Nucky asks if his name came up.

The Flashback Sequences
Little Susan Thompson passed away in the flashback sequences and the Thompson family could not afford to bury her properly. The Sheriff suggests to the Commodore that they pay their respects but Kaestner says “The kid’s old man thinks I’m the devil.” The Sheriff reminds him that Ethan votes. When the Commodore goes to the Thompsons’ to offer money for a proper burial, we get a handle on the bad blood between Ethan Thompson and the Commodore — a land deal that left Ethan feeling cheated. Ethan chases the Commodore off with a shotgun, pockets the money and makes young Nucky fill in Susan’s grave, apparently as punishment for working for the enemy. The boy’s helplessness in being able to do anything for his sister surely left its mark on his psyche and explains why Nucky has always been attracted to damsels in distress as a man.